


Baby Girl

by imaginentertain



Category: Days of Our Lives
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-23
Updated: 2014-03-23
Packaged: 2018-01-16 18:44:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1357966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginentertain/pseuds/imaginentertain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Arianna Grace has the kind of life that people envy, but there's something about it even she doesn't understand.  Until she does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Baby Girl

**Author's Note:**

> For LA, because I stole this back from her.

Arianna Grace has the kind of life that her friends envy a little.

She is funny and smart and well read. She is kind and generous and so open hearted that it's hard not to love her. She is supportive and forgiving (but only if you deserve it). She is strong minded but not opinionated. Thanks to her mom's Latina looks she has the boys lined up around the block, but she doesn't make it easy for them. Her long-term boyfriend is the only one who was OK with her limit of kissing and hands staying away from the area between her shoulders and knees.

Ari has had the same friend group, for the most part, since kindergarten. The four of them have survived everything that life has thrown at them so far and they're only stronger for it. Boys have come and gone (although Ari and Tabatha's boyfriends have lasted a little longer than most) but the four of them have stayed the same. It's not common knowledge yet either, but Alex is starting to suspect that she might like boys _and_ girls, and Ari is proving to be the best kind of support anyone can have in that situation.

She has a mom who models for some of the biggest cosmetic companies in the state, and so always has freebies and samples around the house. This makes for the best parties and girls weekends. Ari has been to several shoots herself, but always behind the camera. This is most likely the reason for her desire to be a photographer when she grows up, and she's already amassing a portfolio that most teens would envy.

Her "bio dad" is a successful author whose photo Ari often takes for the dust jacket. His third novel is now on the school's reading list. He comes in and does talks and it's clear that Ari is a daddy's girl, even at the age of sixteen years old. (She's not ashamed to admit to it either, something else to love about her.) Will is mature, well read and very articulate. He has a dry wit and a smile that makes the girls fall just a little bit more in love with him. And then when they find out that he's been married to his husband for over fifteen years they love him just a little bit more.

Ari's "not that dad, the other one" is the kind of businessman that only existed on the news until they met him. With clubs and coffeehouses spread out over a fifty mile radius there is nothing that they can't give Ari. She's already talking about maybe going to an Ivy League school, but her friends wonder why she's so unsure about it when "not that dad, the other one" has the empire that he does. Also he serves the best coffees for miles around, and they always get free cake on a Friday when they all call in after school.

Her teachers are always full of praise for her work, she's almost top of every class she's in, has a list of extra-curriculars that keep her busy, and surrounds herself with good people.

Which makes her step-dad all the more confusing.

None of Ari's friends can work out why Gabi is with him. They can't understand how they got full custody over her dads, who have had to be content with every third weekend and the occasional week in the summer. When asked about it, Ari just shrugs and says that's how it's always been. That _him_ (as she not-so-lovingly refers to her mom's husband as) just said that being full-time parents didn't fit in with her dads' lifestyle. That they were happy to let her go.

Ari didn't believe him at eight years old, she certainly doesn't believe him now.

Last weekend her dad had asked about plans for school, and when she said that she'd be happy going to Salem U he'd gotten this sad look on his face. She'd pushed and pressed and asked him until he gave in and said that he'd hoped for better for her, wanted her to get out there. Her not-that-dad-the-other-one had asked why she wasn't looking elsewhere she'd quietly said that she didn't think her mom and _he_ could afford it.

At which point they had both told her two things.

One – if she doesn't want to call him her step-dad then she should call him Nick.

Two – they would help out in any way that they could; all she'd have to do is ask.

When she'd gone home the next day her mom had sighed, told her that they were probably feeling guilty over not being a part of her life, and that she shouldn't equate their money with love. Then _he_ had come in and said that his baby girl could have anything she wanted.

(She wanted him to stop calling her that. She wasn't his baby girl.)

And this was how things were between them. Her dads would be nothing but kind and supportive when they were together, but other than that there was so little contact that her mom's explanations and comments seemed to make sense. She tried to ignore him as much as possible, learning to say 'Nick' around her dads because that was what they wanted her to do. She continued to do well in school, hang out with her friends as much as she could, having no idea that this Friday night things were going to change.

~~

Tabatha was having dinner at David's due to a family celebration. Alex had met someone (a female someone Ari suspected) and so was on a nervous first date. When Kelly cried off their coffee date, citing too much homework Ari decided that she was going to go home and work on editing some pictures that she'd taken this last week.

Obviously she wasn't expected home this early, judging by the conversation she could hear her mom and him having.

"All I'm saying is that if they're willing to pay for her education then why shouldn't we let them?"

"Because," _he_ said in that arrogant tone he always had, "they know they're not supposed to be involved in her life."

"So you'd rather limit Arianna than let her dad help out?"

"Will is not her father," _he_ said, "he's not the one who's been here for the last sixteen years."

"I didn't mean that," Gabi sighed, "but—"

"Gabi, sweetheart, I know you mean well and you want the best for Ari. I do too. But we can't let them get their claws into her. We have spent far too long making sure that she stays here with us, that everything is controlled."

"But they want—"

"They want to use her against us," _he_ continued. "They will take her away from you, even though you're her mom. They know that they can buy her an education and expensive things, and you know what teenage girls are like. She'll be lured away and then you'll barely see her. Is that what you want?"

"Of course not—"

"I just want to protect you, both of you, from them. They're quite happy living their life and have been for the last sixteen years. Ari with us, and they get to check in every now and then. I was kind to them, you know I was. We could have made it so they never saw Ari. We could have moved away and just disappeared."

"You know their families never would have let us," Gabi said.

"Their families didn't have a choice," _he_ said. "When I made things perfectly clear to Camp and Camper they knew it was in their best interests to let us take her. I could have made life very difficult for them and I think we have been more than patient and generous with them. We both know that they're only supposed to see Ari at the agreed times, but have we said anything about the fact that they both seem to be at the club on a Friday when Ari and her friends go in? Or about the visits Will makes to Ari's school? But it has to be controlled, Gabi. They're taking those little things, those inches, bit by bit, and if we don't put our foot down then they will take the whole mile."

"I know, but—"

"We don't know what nonsense they've been filling her head with and if we let her go then we don't know what else they'll do to her. Salem U has a good range of courses, we get to keep our baby girl here, and nothing has to change."

"Yes, it does," Arianna said, announcing her presence from the doorway. Before they could say anything she found herself speaking, her voice calm and level. "First thing that does is I'm packing a bag and going to stay with my dads. Who, by the way, have always been respectful of you two, even though I have never understood how or why. Next thing that is going to change is that I am going to find out everything that you ever said or did to them to make them stay away from me. I never could understand why I saw them so little, and they just said that's how it was. And like a good little girl I just accepted that, but no more. After that we are going to talk schools. Dad's got family in Greece, maybe I'll study in Europe."

"Will's not from Greece—" Gabi started, but stopped when she realised exactly who Ari was referring to.

"You have lied to me, manipulated me, and kept two people who love me out of my life. Why?"

"It was for the best," _he_ said.

"I'm done with you," Ari snapped, "you have no rights over me at all."

"I'm your father."

"No, you're married to my mother. William Horton is the name on my birth certificate and if I'm going to accept any other parent then it certainly won't be you."

Gabi started towards Ari, but stopped when she took a step back. "Baby, we just wanted—"

"Everything done your way," Ari finished. "I know."

She turned and headed into her room, grabbing the first bag she could find and stuffing in handfuls of everything she felt she'd need tonight. If she had to she'd buy a new wardrobe just to not have to come back here. When she was done she turned to find them standing in her doorway.

"Let me past," she said firmly.

"You are not leaving this house," _he_ said.

Holding his gaze Ari pulled her cell phone from her pocket. Very deliberately she dialled 9-1-1, her thumb hovering over the call button. "You can't stop me; I believe that's called unlawful detainment."

"You are our daughter—"

"I am nothing to do with you."

"Ari, please," Gabi begged. "We can talk about this, I can explain."

"It's not your side I want to hear."

"They agreed to it," she said. "When Nick talked to them all those years ago, they agreed to this."

"And didn't you ever ask why, Mom? We all lived together before he came back into the picture, I know because I've seen the photos and they told me when I asked. I never understood why they would give me up unless... unless they were made to," she finished, her gaze turning back to him. "What did you do?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Sure you don't," Ari said. "Just like you didn't know what you were doing when you edited the payment contracts for the photographers so you siphoned off almost fifteen percent of their fee? Or like how you don't know how despite all the shoots I've been operating under budget, the company is still being billed for the full whack?"

He stilled when he realised what she was saying.

"I'm leaving, and I swear that if you even try to stop me or contact me, I won't go to the police with what I know. I'll go to the DiMera and the Kiriakis families and I will tell them that you kept me from my dads. I will tell them how you used me and you're using Mom to cheat them. Now get out of my way."

They stepped aside for her, but as Ari walked past she heard him mutter, "She gets that from them you know."

Turning back she smiled. "And I'm proud of it too."

~~

"I'm sure she's fine," Sonny said, pulling Will down onto the couch with him. "None of them came in so something probably came up."

"I should text her."

"And be that dad?" Sonny laughed. "She's a good kid and won't appreciate being checked up on."

"I just want her to know that I care."

"She knows," Sonny said. "We show her, as much as we can."

"I know," Will sighed, settling back into Sonny's arms and smiling as he felt a kiss being pressed into his hair. "So what's on TV tonight?"

"Something dire, probably. Guess an early night is on the cards?"

"Do you promise?" Will laughed, sitting up when he heard the knock at the door.

"Get rid of them and find out," Sonny grinned, watching Will as he walked across the room.

Will opened the door and opened his mouth to say something, shutting it when he saw the look on Ari's face. He half turned to Sonny, stepping back so he could see who was at the door. Ari waited until Sonny had joined them, her hands tightening nervously around the strap over her shoulder.

"Can I... move in with you guys?" she asked eventually, her voice finally betraying her nerves.

Without saying anything her dads reached out for her, pulling her in tight against them. They kissed her head and her face, told her they loved her, and when they called her their baby girl she didn't correct them.


End file.
